SOOOO turns out I managed to upload the chapters in the wrong order and totally left this one out! Please read this >.< Sorry sorry!

~Chapter 35~

Look into the Future

Minho's POV~

            I just need to get rid of Jong Kook hyungnim to protect my friends…the throne will soon be mine and then I can get his soul back…or I can defy the Peacekeepers and risk my friends’ lives and Taemin’s soul. Both choices will paint me as a traitor. Both choices will hurt. This is a burden I must face. I bitterly laugh to myself as I down another bowl of liquor. I fall over and glare at the moon. By the time of the full moon, I would have already made my final decision. I wish…the full moon will never come. I wish that I can just run away from it all. I should’ve died in prison that year…

Kai’s POV~

            I engulf another monster bead and lay atop of the palace roof. I wonder how long I will keep this up for. I have to help Taemin hyung no matter what, but I feel my life hindering day by day. There’s no guarantee how many more battles I could assist before I die.  

            I feel a tear on my heart and dart up. I clutch onto my chest and the pain gets stronger and stronger. I groan loudly and squirm in pain, making me lose my position on the roof. I feel myself rolling over the side and with a bam I land on the palace ground. “Oh my gosh are you okay?!” I hear a familiar voice and a pair of gentle arms roll me on my back and into their embrace. I whimper at the pain and lean into their chest more, trying to hide my pain. It hurts so much.

            Suddenly the pain stops and I gasp for some air. I didn’t realize I wasn’t breathing a few moments ago. I open my eyes and see that I was in Baekhyun hyung’s arms and sit up. I get up slowly with the help of Baekhyun hyung. My soul linkage with Taemin hyung was almost severed. What is happening? When I split half my bead with Taemin hyung, I linked myself with him since the bead is my lifespan. When it dissolved due to poisoning, the linkage still remained. How did it almost get cut off entirely? “Let’s go to the imperial doctor. You just fell from the roof and you’re in a lot of pain.”

            “I’m okay,” I mutter and try to walk on my own, but my legs give out. I topple over but Baekhyun hyung quickly catches me.

            “You most definitely are not okay,” he moves my hair away from my sweaty face. “Do…” he leans in and whispers. “Do you need me to catch some monsters for you?” I look at him and he immediately nods, understanding. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell anyone.”

            “Thank you,” I say. “I—” I stop talking as the scent of blood distracts me. I look down and notice that my claws have appeared and cut up Baekhyun hyung’s hand. “I’m sorry,” I let go of his hands and hide mine behind my back. “I gotta go.” With all the strength I have left, I run away, out of his sight.

Onew’s POV~

            I wince as I sharpen the arrowhead. I place it down and look at my shaking hands. I definitely overworked them this time. I have been making arrows nonstop and it’s taking a toll on my body. I have one more day left and if I take a break now, that means we will have less arrows to shoot when the enemy comes. I have been making arrows ever since I learned how to shoot an arrow, but I haven’t perfected them until recently because of the monsters. I have to make the arrows well enough so that even if a non-monster hunter or a person with low internal energy shot it, the damage can still be done. Most of the arrows I made were given to the villagers to protect themselves, which is why I do not have enough. If only I had more time. Five minutes. I’m just going to take a five-minute break. That should give my hand enough rest.

            Knock. Knock. “Come in,” I say and Joon enters, carrying a tray of hot tea and his best attempt at fried chicken. “You shouldn’t have. You have been up for the past two days preparing yourself. You didn’t have to make me food.”

            “Don’t worry about me,” he says warmly and reaches his hand out after placing the tray on the table. I smile and hold it. “You see?” He says and intertwines his fingers with my shaking ones. “You barely have enough strength to hold my hand and here you are worrying about me. It’s not unlike you, but still. You need to worry about yourself sometimes, my lovely Lee Jinki.” I blush slightly and my lips curl up. Why is he always so loving? It makes me want to lean on him and remove my status of a hero. When he is showing me such affection, I can’t help but want to be around him longer. “I love it when you smile,” he says and brushes my cheek with the back of his warm hand. “It worries me when you rarely smile. It makes me feel like I’m not treating you right.”

            “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be smiling right now,” I say and nuzzle my face into his hand. “Thank you for always being so loving.” I pull my chair closer to his and embrace him. I always feel so protected in him arms.

            “Let’s enjoy some chicken before it cools down. It won’t taste good cold,” he says and brings a piece to my mouth. “Say ahh~” I laugh and take it from him.

            “I can feed myself~” I chomp on the chicken and bounce up and down, happily.

            “Thank for always bringing me happiness,” he says and my hair. “Promise me that you’ll get some rest tonight.”

            “But I—”

            “Please, can you do it for me?”

            “Okay, I’ll rest after I eat my chicken.”

            “Thank you,” he says and quickly leans in and pecks my cheek. I gasp and cup my cheek, as it was the first time he ever kissed me. “Sorry, I should’ve asked for your permission,” he blushes. “I wanted to ask you for a while, but I never figured out when was the best timing. Since I will be leading the army, I want to make sure I get a kiss in case I don’t make it back.”

            “Hey, don’t you dare jinx yourself,” I huff. “When this is over, I’ll let you kiss me whenever you want.” I blush even more and nibble on the chicken.

            “I love you,” he says. “Truly.”

            “I love you too.”

Jonghyun’s POV~

            “It’s not fair~” I whine. “I’m stuck with Jong Kook hyungnim and Kai~ I want to be paired with you. Why does Onew hyung and Joon hyung always get paired together and we always get separated? So unfair~”

            “Since Onew hyung can shoot from a long distance, it helps. Joon hyung has been a general for a very long time, which is why he is also at the palace. I have been a warrior for His Majesty for a very long time, too. You, Jong Kook hyungnim, and Kai are great warriors of the martial realm so you are assigned to attend affairs beyond the palace. It makes a lot of sense to me,” Key explains.

            “Ah come on even the White Masked Hero and Minho always get paired with each other. We are the only couple that get separated!”

            “Excuse me, ‘couple?’”

            “Uhh,” I awkwardly smile while rubbing the back of my neck. “I meant it like a pair. We used to always partner up and kill monsters so…” my voice trails off and I stop talking altogether. I bite down my tongue to avoid my emotions from showing on my face. What was I thinking? Couple? People in this time period are close to their friends because they treat them like family. Like those people who swear to be brothers? Yeah…I was dumb to think two males can openly love each other in this time period. Outsiders still look at Onew hyung and Joon hyung and think they are just brotherly, not lovers. I was silly to think Key thought of me as anything more than a good brother.

             “Where are you going?” He asks as I step pass the threshold.

            “I forgot that I made plans with Joon hyung to talk about the upcoming battle. I’ll see you around,” I lied and run to my room, where I can cry freely.

Key’s POV~

            The look in his eyes seem to be of deep sadness as he looked at me. Nonetheless, a smile still spread across his face as he picked up his weapons and headed out the door. He didn’t even look back when he walked out…he always did. He always left an endearing smile before we part ways. For some reason, I feel my heart sink at the sight of Jonghyun hyung like this. I don’t want to see him sad. Did I say something wrong?

Taemin’s POV~

            “How do I look?” I ask Gun Tae who followed me to find the master.

            You look basically the same. You just look older, that’s all, he howls.

            “Old? Hey kiddo, can you use another term? Like mature or something?” I chuckle and look in the mirror again. I don’t think I look too different. My face lost a lot of its baby fat and my facial bones stand out more. I definitely look at lot cooler hehe.

            Would you stop admiring yourself? Gun Tae circles me.

            “I haven’t seen my reflection in a long time, okay? Let me live~” I whine.

            Okay okay I’m sorry, he wags his tail. What’s taking the master so long? Is he going to turn me back into a human or not?

            “He’s summoning the spirit of his master to consolidate the plan. It might take a bit longer,” I explain.

            Hyung! The master taught you how to look into the future. Why don’t you give it a try!? He wags his tail more excitedly. I smile and walk over to the pool. Here goes nothing. I take the dagger and cut my hand, dripping blood into the pool. I say a spell and color changes into a strange purple. The water swirls and an image starts to form. I gasp in awe as I see me laying in a room that resembles a hospital and a lab all at once. A crew of people are dressed in scrubs and doing come work on the computers.

            This doesn’t feel right. If they discovered our bodies after the accident, then shouldn’t we be in a regular hospital? If we are considered to be in a coma, they would just leave us on a bed and continue to keep us alive. This isn’t a normal hospital stay. What are they doing with us? Where are my hyungs? Did they separate us!? “He’s going to be angry if we can’t figure out why his face healed so quickly” one of them says while they stare at my motionless body. Are they using me in a science experiment?! Not to mention the mysterious liquid they are putting in my IV drip. What should I do? Are they good or evil? Does that mean they have been tracking everything that has been happening to our bodies? That means whatever we do now will affect the future…or has everything been decided and we are here to fulfill the predestined future?

            Hyung, what’s happening? This looks really creepy.

            “Tell me about it,” I bite my lip, confused on what to do. “I just want to know what they are trying to accomplish…” A loud crash interrupts my though process. Dust erupts in the future and I hear clinking of weapons making contact. A group of men enter the lab, armed with weapons, despite it being the 21^st century.  

            “Return our master or else we are going to kill you,” one of the males say.

            “Hey,” another male whispers into the first guy’s ear. “I don’t think appa would want us to hurt people.”

            “Are you trying to get his body back or what? It took us this many years to track them down. If we don’t get them back now, we will never get another chance,” he replies. Suddenly, one of the scientists reach under the table and press a button, making alarms blare wildly.

            “Sh*t, we need to go now. If the Monster Hunters track us down, we will be the ones who need saving,” another male shouts amongst the chaos. Monster Hunters? They still exist in the 21^st century? Since when!? The group charge and fight the scientists who are now armed with weapons of their own. “We need to leave now!”

            “No! Last time we let it go, they relocated and it added so many years to our search. You want to wait another five hundred years?!” Another guy yells over the noise. Five hundred years? Are these men monsters? How else would they be this old?

            “Screw it. Let’s defy what appa taught us once and save him. We can face the consequences later.” Another male holds up his weapon and I see the scene shaking. Do they have internal energy or powers? Wait…by appa…do they mean me?! I look away and exchange eye contact with Gun Tae. Yup, he’s just as confused as I am.

            So…turns out the group of men are all monsters that took form as humans and they all call me their father. They used their monster powers to overpower the scientists and took my body with them. My hyungs are separated from me and from the conversation I overheard, they lost track of them after the last time they tried to save us and the scientists relocated. Turns out, monsters exist in the 21^st century and there are groups of monster hunters that are trying to tame all monsters, which is why the group was so worried. Did monsters always exist and I didn’t notice them when I was still in my time period or do they exist now because we went back in time and changed everything? Not to mention how did I get a group to monsters to be my children?

            I regret asking you to look into the future hyung, this is so confusing. Messed up in so many levels. Gun Tae sighs.

            “I agree,” I sigh and sit down, still looking into the time period I am from. “Want to stop watching?”

            No, it’s kinda entertaining. Gun Tae wags his tail even more. I turn back to look at the pool, but my vision blurs and my head starts spinning. I lose my balance and fall over. Hyung, are you okay?! Gun Tae nuzzles me with his snout. I feel my energy leaving my body and my body heating up. I quickly slip into darkness.

            I open my eyes and notice Gun Tae peering over me and the master waving his finger. “Looking through different time periods is not a form of entertainment,” he explains. “If I didn’t come sooner, all of your energy would have been out.” He helps me up and feeds me some bitter medicine.

            “Sorry, I guess I should have asked your permission beforehand.”

            “Every minute you time bend up a day’s worth of energy. This is why last time, Heechul and Jonghyun combined their blood and only peered into that time period for a small moment.”

            “I won’t do it again…”

            “Good,” he pats my head. “I taught you how to channel your power to control the pool because I must isolate myself for a long while to channel more power to prepare the holy pool for you and your hyungs.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “You will find out when time comes. Now, I will give you some of my energy and send you off.”

            “What about Gun Tae?”

            “Right,” he nods and pulls out an amulet. “The bead inside his body is the root to his form. The bead was created from harvesting a thousand monster beads and it can grant its user the ability to turn into a monster and harvest different abilities. I shall remove it and place it in this amulet. This will allow Gun Tae to turn into a wolf at will. You must be careful. The Peacekeepers placed the bead inside of you because your body holds a secret beyond my knowledge. All I know is that the harvested bead chooses its owner. I think they may have placed the bead inside you because they need the bead’s power and if you consume it and stay a monster, you are vulnerable enough for them to control you using their monster taming magic. You may use this bead as you wish, but you must be careful so that they cannot take control over you.”

            Thank you, Gun Tae bows. The master sends his energy to his palm and waves it around Gun Tae’s body as he tries to locate the bead. He hovers his hand over Gun Tae’s stomach and pushes forward. Gun Tae howls in pain as the master sends the energy inside and pushes the bead out. A glowing emerald orb floats out of his mouth and into my master’s palm. I lean forward to look at it and notice that the monster bead is not a solid color. The emerald green is swirling and moving around continuously and if you don’t look at it closely, you just think it is a colorful glowing ping pong ball. I can see why it gets called a monster bead…if anything, it reminds me of those fancy marbles I used to play with as a kid. Ouch. Gun Tae whimpers. Why am I still a wolf?

            “Taemin, let him drink your blood. It will cure the leftover remanence of the bead and purify his body. Same concept as your blood being the antidote to this poison.” I roll up my sleeve and stick my hand out. With a quick motion, Gun Tae sinks his sharp teeth into my flesh. His body begins to transform.